A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to tape loading apparatus and more particularly to a high speed, precision machine for automatically loading a pre-determined amount of magnetic tape into a cassette.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Various devices have been used in the past to wind magnetic tape onto the reels of tape containers known as cassettes. These devices typically loaded tape from a supply reel into cassettes having a short length of leader tape fastened to both reels. Standard practice has been to sequentially (a) extract the leader from the cassette, (b) cut the leader tape into two sections, (c) splice one leader section to the supply tape, (d) wind a selected length of supply tape onto one of the reels of the cassette, (e) cut the supply tape, (f) splice the supply tape to the other leader section, and (g) wind the tape containing the second splice into the cassette.
One problem with prior art cassette loading devices was that cassettes were processed one at a time. Steps (a) through (g) were sequentially performed on each cassette at a single station. The cycle time per cassette was relatively high since all seven steps had to be performed within the cycle. Another problem with such devices was that the winding speed was restricted by thermal effects from frictional heating caused by the tape rubbing against the cassette during winding. This restriction also contributed to high cycle time. As a result, productivity suffered.